Salute 2014 Incoming…

We're just over a fortnight away from this year's Salute show. It's the one show that I will go out of my way to attend and the trip has become something of a tradition now in April. I was wondering what might be on the agenda for me this year.

Let's be honest, I need more models like the Sahara needs more sand. I have a backlog that has slowly grown back to pre-marriage levels and even Ebay isn't helping.

But that's not the point. The point of going to a show like this is to try and bag a deal or two, save some postage costs on things you were going to buy anyway, or dredge your way through the hall picking up anything that whispers "buy me" along the way.

This year I have nothing that I am desperate to buy, no shopping list per se. So with that in mind, what am I looking forward to seeing?

Having recently pledged on the World of Twilight Kickstarter I'm looking forward to having another look at the game. I saw the game originally at a previous Salute, loved the unique style of miniatures and was intrigued. Nothing ever came of that other than a PDF rule download. I've always admired the one-man-band approach behind the game, so when the Kickstarter appeared I decided to show my appreciation (and receive a few more minis that will join the backlog).

I always remember at Salute time, how much I like the WarmaHordes game. Unfortunately, because we don't play it anymore, for the rest of the year I forget this fact. I will probably end up buying a couple of solos or light warbeasts for my Legion of Everblight army. I still have several yet to be painted (or even built) but this game is probably my achilles heel – Cryx and Everblight especially. One day I will play it properly.

Another game that has been flitting on and off my radar is Bolt Action. I grew up with plastic toy soldiers and I enjoyed my time playing Flames of War. This game would seem to be a great nod to my youth playing at a scale I'm more comfortable with. Whether I could face painting up another army for another game is a different matter, but I'm intrigued enough to peek at the rules.

With the Salute theme this year being D-Day, it's more than likely that the free mini will be related and useable in Bolt Action, so maybe this is the springboard I need.

I can't ignore the fact that Blood Bowl is still the game of the hour. As much as I have all the teams I need, more than enough Block Dice and accessories, I can't help but expect to come home with something related to our current addiction. Be it more dice, star players or random sideline character models, I think your money's safe on this bet.

Of course I'm looking forward to seeing some great demo games and amazing tables. Previous years have always provided some inspiration for the following gaming year and it's great to see what other folks are doing. I'm looking forward to catching up with the guys at Critical Mass Games, who I have to admit I have neglected recently. I know they have been working away on new stuff so look forward to seeing the results.

Last, but by no means least we have Aetherium. The guys from Anvil Eight won't be at Salute, they'll have just finished Adepticon over in the States and will be up to their necks in Kickstarter goodness – starting on Monday 31st March. I have been working hard for the last month on the visual side of the Aetherium project, trying to get the guys everything they need for a quality game and a successful Kickstarter and game launch. I won't lie, at times it has been brutal with the long hours – hence this blog's been quiet lately – but at the same time a joy to be a part of. I'm very proud of my contributions, most of which the public won't have seen yet.

Why mention it here? One day I hope that Aetherium will make an appearance at Salute but in the meantime I will be flying the flag with a branded T-shirt as I stroll around this year's show.
Keep a look out!

Painting The Nurgle Team…

After a successful semi-debut on Sunday with the Nurgle team, and inspired by a day of painting, I thought I would spend a little time adding some colour to my rotten players.

It was always the intention for this team to be a quick turn around in terms of painting, however, I am still experimenting with colours to some extent. Here's a run down of the process to date…

I started off – a couple of weeks ago – putting together the team on larger 30mm bases and using a bit of Polyfilla as texture. The Beast, as I discussed, is a resin piece from Kromlech; the Warriors and Pestigor are recycled 40k/Fantasy miniatures; the Rotters a combination of Mantic Zombies and Chaos Marauder bitz.

Next I got out the greenstuff and added it to every model. The Beast needed nothing more than a bit of filling. The Pestigor and Warriors had a few Nurgle extras added to have them looking the part a bit more. Meanwhile the Rotters had extensive work done, filling and bulking out parts of the models. Nothing complicated here and very quick to achieve decent results.

Once the greenstuff had cured, the models are spray basecoated in batches using the Army Painter Necrotic Flesh spray. A couple of passes later they look like they've been dipped in melted white chocolate!

Seeing the team in their creamy base colour – eurgh! – was enough to inspire me to move on as quickly as possible. I defaulted to my old routine of lots of inks and washes.

Every model had an initial wash of Army Painter Green Tone, then several coats of Citadel's Camoshade. In fact, they had so many coats of this last colour that (as you can see) many parts of the models got flooded to almost black! Still they looked a hell of a lot more like Nurgle miniatures.

I gave an exposed areas of flesh a wash of the watered down Necrotic Flesh to offset the flooding of the Camoshade. This was then given a couple of thin washes of Druchii Violet. This added some warmth to the model, helping to offset all the green. Armour was given a quick coat of Knarloc Green with a couple of highlights.

…and that's how things stand at the moment. The armour will get more Camoshade attention, the flesh some highlights and details. I have no doubt I'll still sink a lot of time into the Beast as he's just such a fantastic model.

The need to be ready for just after Salute, so stay tuned for a final team photo!

A Hobby Day With Pro Elves

The aftermath of my previous game of Blood Bowl against left Bull me somewhat exhausted, so you'll have noticed I took a week off blogging.

This weekend, Bull and I arranged a 'hobby day' which is something we haven't done in a long time. Instead of the next instalment of our BB league, we had a day of painting in the unexpected beautiful weather. Bull is in the middle of repainting his Pro Elves, so I took my paints and brushes and showed him how I paint my figures and how I use my wet palette. Bull was suitably impressed and followed my lead, taking on board some of my techniques and blending them with his established painting style. A few hours later we had a couple of figures done to a good gaming standard and Bull had a blueprint for the remainder of his team.

We couldn't let the opportunity pass without rolling a few block dice, so we had a hastily arranged 'golden goal' game of Blood Bowl – first touchdown wins. Of course we tried out our new teams – Pro Elves vs Nurgle – to see what they were like.

Bull won the dice roll and elected to receive. Despite my heavy hitting front line, he burst through and flooded my half of the field, with his Thrower safely hanging back in his own half. However, Bull had inadvertently got himself encircled by my entire team and seemed unable to roll Dodges successfully. He did manage a double-Dodge with a minus 2 modifier for tackles zones, but this appeared to use up all his luck for the day. In two turns he had used up all his re-rolls which left him terribly exposed.

In addition, by Turn four he had one guy Knocked Out and a Casualty missing the next game (hypothetically). My Nurgle team were knocking him all around the pitch and he was lucky that more Elves weren't off the pitch. He had a brief opportunity to score, but mistimed his moves. This left his Thrower – with the ball – rather exposed.

My Beast of Nurgle managed to pass his stupid test and make a successful blitz. One of my Rotters followed up and picked up the ball, shuffling towards the end zone. I managed to position my adjacent players to make it virtually impossible for Bull to get near the ball carrier – most of his team were still in my half of the pitch. With his usual determination and flair for the dramatic, Bull attempted some risky moves to get a shot at the Rotter, but it was a simple Dodge that proved his undoing – failed and turnover.

This left the Rotter a simple task of moving the final three squares into the endzone.

A great day's painting and an interesting test run for the new teams. My thanks to Bull and his wife for being such fab hosts. Looking forward to the next game for real!